Principal Industrial Controls Engineer

Exol

8d•$180,000 - $247,500•Remote

About The Position

Symbotic is seeking a Principal Industrial Controls Engineer to join our Industrial Control Systems R&D team within our Engineering organization. This role serves as a technical authority for the architecture, evolution, and management of our PLC controls and simulation platforms. Reporting to the Director of Industrial Control Systems R&D, this position combines deep hands-on controls expertise with enterprise-level technical leadership. The Principal Engineer will drive simplification and standardization, create reusable platform capabilities, shape multi-year technical roadmaps, and influence execution across products, programs, and sites. The role may directly manage one or two engineers, but its primary accountability is technical direction, platform health, and organizational impact.

Requirements

Minimum of 12 years of related experience or equivalent work experience.
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, Automation Engineering, or a related field.
Expert-level knowledge of Rockwell Automation PLC platforms, motion control, safety PLC systems, OT networking, and industrial communication protocols.
Demonstrated experience defining controls architectures and reusable platform capabilities deployed across multiple products, programs, or sites.
Deep experience with simulation and virtual commissioning, including digital twins, software-in-the-loop or hardware-in-the-loop testing, automated regression, and scenario-based validation.
Strong knowledge of HMI/SCADA architecture and development; experience with Inductive Automation Ignition is preferred.
Experience managing platform lifecycles, including roadmaps, release and compatibility strategies, configuration management, observability, cybersecurity, technical debt, and deprecation planning.
Strong software engineering practices applied to PLC development, including modular design, version control, code review, automated testing, CI/CD, diagnostics, and documentation.
Ability to simplify complex systems, make sound architectural tradeoffs, and lead across organizational boundaries without relying on direct authority.
Excellent communication, mentoring, and stakeholder-management skills; prior direct people-management experience is beneficial but not required.

Responsibilities

Define and own the architecture, technical strategy, and lifecycle roadmap for industrial controls and simulation platforms across Symbotic products and deployments.
Establish modular, reusable PLC platform capabilities, libraries, templates, interfaces, and configuration standards that accelerate delivery and improve consistency.
Drive simplification by reducing one-off solutions and platform variants, clarifying system boundaries, eliminating duplication, and leading practical migration plans.
Provide deep, hands-on technical leadership for Rockwell Automation PLCs, motion control, safety systems, OT networking, industrial protocols, and HMI/SCADA solutions.
Lead the simulation and virtual-commissioning strategy, including digital twins, software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop testing, automated regression, and deterministic scenario coverage.
Manage platform health through versioning, compatibility, release governance, diagnostics, observability, cybersecurity, quality metrics, technical-debt reduction, and deprecation planning.
Architect and govern interfaces among PLC controls, electrical systems, robotics, embedded systems, simulation, and higher-level software.
Lead architecture and design reviews, document key decisions, and communicate risks and technical tradeoffs clearly to engineering and business stakeholders.
Prototype and de-risk new controls concepts, then guide their transition into supported, production-ready platform capabilities.
Lead troubleshooting and root-cause analysis for complex, cross-system, or high-impact issues and convert findings into systemic improvements.
Mentor engineers and raise technical capability across teams through coaching, standards, technical forums, and reusable guidance.
May directly manage one or two engineers, including regular 1:1s, goal setting, performance feedback, and career development, while remaining primarily accountable for technical leadership.
Influence portfolio priorities and partner with product, systems, software, electrical, test, deployment, and operations leaders to align platform investments with business needs.